Improvement in the manufacture of metallic cartridge-shells



- w; E. Emma & BUCKLAND. MANUFACTURE QF METALLIC CARTRIDGE-SHELLS.No.172,853. Patented Feb. 1, 1,876.

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UNITED STATES WILLIAM E. FRAZIER AND JAMES BUCKLAND, OF HARTFORD,CONNECTICUT,

PATENT QFFIcE.

ASSIGNORS TO THEMSELVES AND WILLIAM R. LANDFEAR, OF BROOK- LYN, NEWYORK.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 172,853, dated February1, 1876; application filed November 4, 1875.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, WILLIAM E. FRAZIER and JAnms BUOKLAND, of Hartford,in the county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, have invented.certain new and usefulImprovements in Metallic Cartridge-Shells and wedo hereby declare that the following is a full, clear,'and exactdescription thereof, whereby a person skilled in the art can make anduse the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and tothe'l'etters of reference marked thereon.

Like letters in the figures indicate the same parts. j

Our invention relates'to such shells or cartridge-cases as are used toform the ammunition for small-arms, and which are usually made of brassor copper. I

- It consists in a new mode or process of manufacture, whereby longerand stronger shells can be made, and of a less ductile material.

The ordinary method of making such shells isto first punch a circulardisk out of a sheet of rolled metal, and then form the shell by turningup the edges and drawing it through dies. This crimps the edge of theturned-up metal together and draws it out to the required length.

Our improved method obviates the difficulty experienced in' crimpingtogether the edge of a large disk to form a long shell, and insuresgreater uniformity of structure and strength in the metal.

Instead of using the circular blanks before mentioned, a sheet of rolledmetal is placed under suitable dies, and a series of cups formed bydepressing and stretchingthe metal under the punch or male die. Thisleaves the 1 top of the plate smooth, and of its original thicknessbetween the cups.

These cups are then out out with a suitable punch, leaving a rim of theoriginal plate around the top of greater thickness than the rest of thecup. These blanks are then drawn out through dies in the usual manner.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 shows aplate with the cups formedin it by the dies. Fig.2 shows the cup-blank as cut out from the'plate.Fig. 3 shows the finished cartridge-shell.

A A, &c., are the cups struck out from the plate B. C is the blank cutout from the plate, and ready to be drawn or spun out in the usualmanner to form the finished shell. D is the finished shell. Y

The machinery for makingand finishing the shells is of the usualconstruction, except 'for forming the cup-blanks, which must be struckup, as described, before the drawing process commences. These dies arebest arranged in rows quincuncially to save metal in the plate, and maybe struck a single row at a time, progressively across the plate, ormany at once, as is found most convenient.

What we claim as our invention is- The improvement herein described inthe art of making cartridge-shells, consisting in first striking up in aplate a series of cups, leaving the plate between the cups of itsoriginal thickness, then cutting out said cups, and finally drawing themto the form of the finished shell, as and for the purpose set forth.

1 WM. E.-FRAZIER.

JAMES BUGKLAND. -Witnesses: v

TnEo. G. ELLIS, WENDELL R. CURTIS.

